Barad, Bohr, and quantum mechanics

Feminist Science ◽

Agential Realism

AbstractThe last decade has seen an increasing number of references to quantum mechanics in the humanities and social sciences. This development has in particular been driven by Karen Barad’s agential realism: a theoretical framework that, based on Niels Bohr’s interpretation of quantum mechanics, aims to inform social theorizing. In dealing with notions such as agency, power, and embodiment as well as the relation between the material and the discursive level, the influence of agential realism in fields such as feminist science studies and posthumanism has been profound. However, no one has hitherto paused to assess agential realism’s proclaimed quantum mechanical origin including its relation to the writings of Niels Bohr. This is the task taken up here. We find that many of the implications that agential realism allegedly derives from a Bohrian interpretation of quantum mechanics dissent from Bohr’s own views and are in conflict with those of other interpretations of quantum mechanics. Agential realism is at best consistent with quantum mechanics and consequently, it does not capture what quantum mechanics in any strict sense implies for social science or any other domain of inquiry. Agential realism may be interesting and thought provoking from the perspective of social theorizing, but it is neither sanctioned by quantum mechanics nor by Bohr’s authority. This conclusion not only holds for agential realism in particular, it also serves as a general warning against the other attempts to use quantum mechanics in social theorizing.

Quantum Mechanics and an Ontology of Intersubjectivity: Perils and Promises

Open Theology ◽

10.1515/opth-2018-0025 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 4 (1) ◽

pp. 325-341

Author(s):

Marc A. Pugliese

Keyword(s):

Quantum Mechanics ◽

New Physics ◽

Relativity Theory ◽

Quantum Mechanical ◽

Experimental Procedure ◽

Ontological Categories ◽

Per Se ◽

The Many

AbstractContemporary theology has realized the importance of integrating what we know from the “new physics”-quantum mechanics and relativity theory-into the metaphysical and ontological categories used by theology to consider God, the world, and the God-world relationship. The categories of subjectivity and relationality have risen to prominence in these discussions. Both academic and popular presentations can obscure the vital distinction between what physicists agree on concerning quantum mechanics and the contested interpretation of quantum mechanics, or what quantum mechanics reveals about reality. After (1) summarizing the significant distinction between quantum mechanics per se and the interpretations of quantum mechanics and (2) the agreed upon quantum mechanical experimental procedure and its attendant mathematical formalism, as well as a few of the foremost interpretations, this paper (3) attempts a minimalist culling of some rudimentary but clear ontological principles and categories from what is agreed upon in quantum mechanics, without appeals-tacit or explicit-to one of the many controversial interpretations or to contestable philosophical assumptions and deductions, and these are: experience, subjectivity, relationship, and event. The paper closes by (4) commending one speculative scheme that is especially conducive to developing an interpretation of quantum mechanics consonant with the ontological principles and categories so derived, that of Alfred North Whitehead

Quantum mechanics, interpretation of

Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy ◽

10.4324/9780415249126-q085-1 ◽

2018 ◽

Author(s):

Allen Stairs

Keyword(s):

Quantum Mechanics ◽

Microscopic Level ◽

Quantum States ◽

Quantum Mechanical ◽

Quantum Superposition ◽

Ordinary Objects ◽

Making Sense ◽

The World

Quantum mechanics developed in the early part of the twentieth century in response to the discovery that energy is quantized, that is, comes in discrete units. At the microscopic level this leads to odd phenomena: light displays particle-like characteristics and particles such as electrons produce wave-like interference patterns. At the level of ordinary objects such effects are usually not evident, but this generalization is subject to striking exceptions and puzzling ambiguities. The fundamental quantum mechanical puzzle is ’superposition of states’. Quantum states can be added together in a manner that recalls the superposition of waves, but the effects of quantum superposition show up only probabilistically in the statistics of many measurements. The details suggest that the world is indefinite in odd ways; for example, that things may not always have well-defined positions or momenta or energies. However, if we accept this conclusion, we have difficulty making sense of such straightforward facts as that measurements have definite results. Interpretations of quantum mechanics are, in one way or another, attempts to understand the superposition of quantum states. The range of interpretations stretches from the metaphysically daring to the seemingly innocuous. But, so far, no single interpretation has commanded anything like universal agreement.

Barad's Feminist Naturalism

Hypatia ◽

10.1111/j.1527-2001.2004.tb01272.x ◽

2004 ◽

Vol 19 (1) ◽

pp. 142-161 ◽

Cited By ~ 48

Author(s):

Joseph Rouse

Keyword(s):

Science Studies ◽

Philosophical Naturalism ◽

Feminist Science Studies ◽

Feminist Science ◽

Agential Realism

Philosophical naturalism is ambiguous between conjoining philosophy with science or with nature understood scientifically. Reconciliation of this ambiguity is necessary but rarely attempted. Feminist science studies often endorse the former naturalism but criticize the second. Karen Barad's agential realism, however, constructively reconciles both senses. Barad then challenges traditional metaphysical naturalisms as not adequately accountable to science. She also contributes distinctively to feminist reinterpretations of objectivity as agential responsibility, and of agency as embodied, worldly, and intra-active.

Constructing deterministic models for quantum mechanical systems

International Journal of Geometric Methods in Modern Physics ◽

10.1142/s0219887820400071 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 17 (supp01) ◽

pp. 2040007

Author(s):

Gerard ’t Hooft

Keyword(s):

Quantum Mechanics ◽

Essential Element ◽

Quantum Mechanical ◽

Final States ◽

Deterministic Models ◽

Quantum Theories ◽

Initial States ◽

Quantum Mechanical Systems ◽

Entire Theory

A sharper formulation is presented for an interpretation of quantum mechanics advocated by the author. We claim that only those quantum theories should be considered for which an ontological basis can be constructed. In terms of this basis, the entire theory can be considered as being deterministic. An example is illustrated: massless, noninteracting fermions are ontological. Subsequently, as an essential element of the deterministic interpretation, we put forward conservation laws concerning the ontological nature of a variable, and the uncertainties concerning the realization of states. Quantum mechanics can then be treated as a device that combines statistics with mechanical, deterministic laws, such that uncertainties are passed on from initial states to final states.

Agent Inaccessibility as a Fundamental Principle in Quantum Mechanics: Objective Unpredictability and Formal Uncomputability

Entropy ◽

10.3390/e21010004 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 21 (1) ◽

pp. 4 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Jan Walleczek

Keyword(s):

Quantum Mechanics ◽

Random Sequence ◽

Fundamental Principle ◽

Formal Proof ◽

Dynamical Chaos ◽

Fundamental Limit ◽

Formal Limit ◽

Complete Quantum

The inaccessibility to the experimenter agent of the complete quantum state is well-known. However, decisive answers are still missing for the following question: What underpins and governs the physics of agent inaccessibility? Specifically, how does nature prevent the agent from accessing, predicting, and controlling, individual quantum measurement outcomes? The orthodox interpretation of quantum mechanics employs the metaphysical assumption of indeterminism—‘intrinsic randomness’—as an axiomatic, in-principle limit on agent–quantum access. By contrast, ontological and deterministic interpretations of quantum mechanics typically adopt an operational, in-practice limit on agent access and knowledge—‘effective ignorance’. The present work considers a third option—‘objective ignorance’: an in-principle limit for ontological quantum mechanics based upon self-referential dynamics, including undecidable dynamics and dynamical chaos, employing uncomputability as a formal limit. Given a typical quantum random sequence, no formal proof is available for the truth of quantum indeterminism, whereas a formal proof for the uncomputability of the quantum random sequence—as a fundamental limit on agent access ensuring objective unpredictability—is a plausible option. This forms the basis of the present proposal for an agent-inaccessibility principle in quantum mechanics.

CORRELATIONS IN ENTANGLED STATES

International Journal of Modern Physics B ◽

10.1142/s0217979206034078 ◽

2006 ◽

Vol 20 (11n13) ◽

pp. 1496-1503

Author(s):

B. C. SANCTUARY

Keyword(s):

Quantum Mechanics ◽

Singlet State ◽

Entangled States ◽

Quantum Mechanical ◽

Hidden Variable ◽

Phase Decoherence ◽

Classical Correlations ◽

Spin Pairs ◽

Ensemble Interpretation

Entangled EPR spin pairs can be treated using the statistical ensemble interpretation of quantum mechanics. As such the singlet state results from an ensemble of spin pairs each with its own specific axis of quantization. This axis acts like a quantum mechanical hidden variable. If the spins lose coherence they disentangle into a mixed state that contains classical correlations. In this paper an infinitesimal phase decoherence is introduced to the singlet state in order to reveal more clearly some of the correlations. It is shown that a singlet state has no classical correlations.

Intimate Bureaucracies: Roadkill, Policy, and Fieldwork on the Shoulder

Hypatia ◽

10.1111/j.1527-2001.2012.01295.x ◽

2012 ◽

Vol 27 (3) ◽

pp. 651-669 ◽

Cited By ~ 3

Author(s):

Alexandra Koelle

Keyword(s):

Social Sciences ◽

Animal Studies ◽

Science Studies ◽

Road Ecology ◽

Painted Turtle ◽

Environmental Groups ◽

Feminist Science ◽

Interdisciplinary Field ◽

The World ◽

Tribal Governments

Over the last twenty years, wildlife biologists and transportation planners have worked with environmental groups and state and tribal governments to mitigate the effects of human transportation arteries on animal habitats and movements. This paper draws connections between this growing field of road ecology and feminist science studies in order to accomplish two things. First, it aims to highlight the often unacknowledged roots that the interdisciplinary field of animal studies has in feminist theory. Second, it seeks to contribute to conversations in the humanities and social sciences on roadkill and on wildlife biology by steering us into a world of practice that foregrounds mundane details. I approach this topic through interdisciplinary methods, including interviews with tribal and state wildlife biologists and participation in fieldwork on a western painted turtle tagging project. Although engaging in science and formulating policy are often understandably regarded by nonspecialists as practices that distance observers from their topic, in the world of roadkill prevention, I argue that the opposite is the case. What I call “intimate bureaucracies” are formed: arrangements of papers, policies, and people that bring a world of counting, and accountability, into being.

Qubit exchange interactions from permutations of classical bits

International Journal of Quantum Information ◽

10.1142/s021974991941003x ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 17 (08) ◽

pp. 1941003 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Hans-Thomas Elze

Keyword(s):

Quantum Mechanics ◽

Cellular Automaton ◽

Series Expansion ◽

Spin Chain ◽

Exchange Interactions ◽

Theoretical Models ◽

Quantum Mechanical ◽

Many Body ◽

Ising Spins

In order to prepare for the introduction of dynamical many-body and, eventually, field theoretical models, we show here that quantum mechanical exchange interactions in a three-spin chain can emerge from the deterministic dynamics of three classical Ising spins. States of the latter form an ontological basis, which will be discussed with reference to the ontology proposed in the Cellular Automaton Interpretation of Quantum Mechanics by ’t[Formula: see text]Hooft. Our result illustrates a new Baker–Campbell–Hausdorff (BCH) formula with terminating series expansion.

Ontological states and dynamics of discrete (pre-) quantum systems

International Journal of Quantum Information ◽

10.1142/s0219749917400135 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 15 (08) ◽

pp. 1740013 ◽

Cited By ~ 4

Author(s):

Hans-Thomas Elze

Keyword(s):

Quantum Mechanics ◽

Equations Of Motion ◽

Superposition Principle ◽

Quantum Systems ◽

Quantum Mechanical ◽

First Order ◽

Mechanical Models ◽

Superposition States ◽

Ising Spins

The notion of ontological states is introduced here with reference to the Cellular Automaton Interpretation of Quantum Mechanics (QM) proposed by ’t Hooft. A class of discrete deterministic “Hamiltonian” Cellular Automata (CA) is defined that has been shown to bear many features in common with continuum quantum mechanical models, however, deformed by the presence of a finite discreteness scale [Formula: see text], such that for [Formula: see text], the usual properties result e.g. concerning linearity, dispersion relations, multipartite systems, and Superposition Principle. We argue that within this class of models, only very primitive realizations of ontological states and their dynamics can exist, since the equations of motion tend to produce superposition states that are not ontological. The most interesting, if not the only way out seems to involve interacting multipartite systems composed of two-state “Ising spins”, which evolve by a unitary transfer matrix. Thus, quantum like and ontological models appear side by side here, but distinguished by second-order and first-order dynamics, respectively.

Chaos and Indeterminism

Canadian Journal of Philosophy ◽

10.1080/00455091.1991.10717241 ◽

1991 ◽

Vol 21 (2) ◽

pp. 141-164 ◽

Cited By ~ 19

Author(s):

Jesse Hobbs

Keyword(s):

Quantum Mechanics ◽

Copenhagen Interpretation ◽

Variable Theory ◽

Hidden Variable ◽

Successful Theory ◽

The Subject

Laplacean determinism remains a popular theory among philosophers and scientists alike, in spite of the fact that the Copenhagen Interpretation of quantum mechanics, with which it is inconsistent, has been around for more than fifty years. There are a number of reasons for its continuing popularity. One, recently articulated by Honderich, is that there are too many possible interpretations of quantum mechanics, and the subject is too controversial even among physicists to be an adequate basis for overturning determinism. Nevertheless, quantum mechanics is an enormously successful theory, considering the quantity and variety of its predictions which have been verified under conditions never dreamt of by its originators; and the Copenhagen Interpretation is the only widely accepted interpretation of it. Although a hidden variable theory consistent with the results of quantum mechanics is not impossible, one of its major advocates admits that it is highly speculative, and far from adequately developed. Yet such a theory would be needed to reconcile Laplacean determinism with quantum mechanics; most of the controversies alluded to by Honderich are irrelevant.